Here's a breakdown:
* Prions are misfolded proteins that can cause other normal proteins to misfold as well, leading to a chain reaction of misfolding. These misfolded proteins are highly resistant to degradation and can accumulate in the brain, causing serious neurological diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as "mad cow disease", in cattle.
* Key characteristic: The most defining feature of prions is their lack of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA). This makes them distinct from viruses, which use nucleic acids as their genetic material.
* Other names: Prions are sometimes referred to as "proteinaceous infectious particles" or "slow viruses" due to their long incubation periods before symptoms appear.
